Death’s Notes and Thoughts

Posts Tagged ‘japanese’

Here is some great piece of anime done by an independant author. I found it on Sankaku Complex and took a liking in it. It’s very simple storywise but sometimes like u can see here the less can be the more aka very funny. The clips also enjoys very high attention currently on YouTube and Nico Nico Druga. Without further words, here is the fun:

Source: YouTube

For those who want more, you can find some storyboards and concept arts on the authors webpage found here.

Have much fun with it, and thanks to the author. We look forward to more :).

-Death

[Via Sankaku Complex]

On November 22, 2010 ten missiles strike Japan. However, this unprecedented terrorist act, later to be called as “Careless Monday,” does not result in any apparent victims, and is soon forgotten by almost everyone. Then, 3 months later… Saki Morimi is a young woman currently in the United States of America on her graduation trip. But just when she is in front of the White House, Washington DC, she gets into trouble, and only the unexpected intervention of one of her fellow countrymen saves her. However, this man, who introduces himself as Akira Takizawa, is a complete mystery. He appears to have lost his memory and he is stark naked, except for the gun he holds in one hand, and the mobile phone he’s holding with the other hand. A phone that is charged with 8,200,000,000 yen in digital cash. (the description comes from Production I.G themself) In fact this anime is sounding weird, but its great. Those who enjoyed already Honey & Clover, especially their animation styles and ways in that anime, will already have something they will love about this one. It features a similar animation, through the story is much deeper and serious. But dont think a serious anime cant be funny, it always have something to laugh about. Surely the beginning have more but still, i liked their balance act. Also the way how Saki gets dragged into all this mess is good made up, in some other animes they’re pretty weak with finding a way to drag the char in the story events in the beginning. Its not the perfect way but its definitly one of the better. Also to my liking was the bigger idea behind the phone and the money which get slowly revealed as the story goes on. What should be said is that this series is a kind of a cliffhanger, the prequel for the movies to come (its three in total). I understand it that the series tell us how all begun and prepare us for the coming events, while the movies will keep the real deal, and have the highlight of the whole thing in em. Maybe I’m wrong but that will we find out once we saw the movies. But if u ask my opinion from all I watched about higu so far, I say it will be good. So if u like conspiracy, spiced with a splash of love and some crazy characters combined with great animation and some fun parts, u found your anime. But like always I say, give it a try even if u say “wtf is this??” as it confuse one a bit until u begin to get bigger picture.

Trailer (eng sub by Frostii):

Source: Youtube

The opening is a great song by the british band oasis, it fits the anime perfectly and if u can get your hands on the video of the song in the “Higashi No Eden” version, watch it. Its 200% better then the original music video, but sadly they decided to keep this version a japanese only thing. Sigh, sad but true. Anyway, here we have the opening for your and after that a lil parodie on the trailer, Higashi no Eden feat. Borne Identity.

Opening:

Source: Youtube

Higashi no Eden feat. Borne Identity:

Source: Youtube

The Quality of the fun trailer is a bit sucky but still its lulz. All together, watch it .

-Death

And here we have one of the lulz. I found this old video (finally subbed!) of MiniMoni (a subgroup of Morning Musume) doing some funny stuff with lockers and the fact that they’re just 1.50 m. Here we go:

Source: YouTube

Enjoy, Death

I was a bit bored and for fun i was searching at youtube for the word “oppai”, since i came across some videos at Sankaku Complex featuring some random japanese school girl topless dancing to some anime soundtracks (hell i’m single and a man^^). Anyway, it was a really funny trailer and so i digged for more information. It appeared to be a funny movie (taking place in the 1979) about a 23 year old teacher (Haruka Ayase) with the name Mikako, that got transfered recently to a junior high school in Kitakyushu. Young and eager like she is, she immediately volunteers to train the boys volleyball team. Unfortunately for her, she finds the team to be made out of just 5 members that are rather obessed over girls then with practing. In an afford to motivate them and to get em to practice, she talked to promise em to flash them her “oppai” (breasts) if they win the big tournament. Like u can expect, such a promise works like a charm. With the perspective to see the well grown rack of their instructor, they immediatly become fiercely determined to become better volleyball players. Obviously Minako is nervous about the implications of ther promise, but also she is pleased with that completed change in the attitude of the players and even reagains her confidence that she once lost. The badside is that the school finds out about this “motivation” right before the first game, possibly jeopardizing her job. Its basedo n a novel by Munenoiri Mizuno. Its supposed to get released on April 18, 2009.

Sources for video: 1 2 @ YouTube

Additional Information Sources: Nippon Cinema

I hope u guys enjoy it as I^^. I will definitly get me this movie.

Based on a shoujo manga by Nakahara Aya, serialised in Margaret. Risa and Otani are always being laughed at as the comedy duo. Risa, a girl, is taller than the average girl, and Otani, a boy, is shorter than the average boy. The two are always bickering and even their teacher sees them as a comedy act. But as their friendship develops, so does Risa’s feelings toward Otani. [taken off AniDB] It was a funny romance anime, which brought a fresh feeling and new fun to me. Here you have not the “I know him from my childhood and now still love him” or “I love him because he helped me with something” or similar. No, here those 2 had in the beginning not even the slightest intention to get together, but develop a relation in a quite “normal” way, so not some extreme stuff happends, no psychic drama. Its just a story of a romance developing over the time u spend in school in a way that I consider as not too unrealistic. That means not its getting boring, instead u get lots of fun. It begins with the lil problem already meantioned in the description, that they always get considered as the comedy duo “all-hanishin kyoshin” (forgive me if i wrote it wrong). That comes from Risa beeing like 1 1/2 head bigger then Otani, and the concidence they act at some times similar, like its a practiced comedy (but it isnt). It goes on with the stuff u can drag out of this difference in high but not limits itself to it (this is where the “complex” in the title comes from^^). You have also her friend Nobou (which damn reminds me on Ren from Super GALs) and her boyfriend (he is not the brightest but well…^^), they also cause a lot of situations and try to help Risa and Otani (mainly Risa) to develop the romance.What you shouldnt expect from this one is any fanservice scenes as its no fanservice anime. That makes it in my eyes even better and refreshing, since i watched too much of those romance fanservice comedy stuff… Another thing is that one should watch this one with an open eyes as you can find here and there some little parodies again on other animes^^. All together a nice and entertaining romance anime, so if you like this genere you probably want to give this one a try.

Opening 2 and Ending

Here you get OP2 and the Ending. I personally like the song of OP1 better but i couldnt find it. Seems the japanese cried once again cause ppl putted the op/ed on youtube… *sight*

Enjoy,

-Death

Based on the visual interactive novel by Minori, featuring character designs by Nanao Naru. The story revolves around the protagonist Hirono Hiro, a poor high school boy who draws shoujo manga for his living. One cold Christmas night after meeting a very strange woman in a church, who tells him that he’s going to meet someone he has to meet, his bike gets stolen by another strange girl. He runs after her and finds her collapsed on the street. Her name is Miyamura Miyako and her bag got stolen by a man on a motorbike. Soon after, they start hanging out together, enjoying highschool life. Miyako falls for Hiro pretty quickly but naturally finds a rival in his childhood friend, Shindou Kei, who has been dictating Hiro’s life since ever. [stolen as usual from AniDB] Well first i got a sense it could end up like Shuffle what means for me that it is half or even three-quarter of it comedy and the from out of nowhere begins the drama. But it wasn’t like that. More its like having 3 seperate little dramas that are connected to eachother through different ways. You might think they end up weaved together but that isnt given, they get a bit together but are still not weaved. While watching i felt often like having a déjà vu. For example when Hiro have Kei piggyback i was instantly thinking of Honey & Clover, where Mayama is having Yamada piggyback. *giggle* Also the name of Hiro-sempai made me think and ToHeart popped up as there our protagonist is also called Hiro-sempai, or Hiro-chan (but there coming from Hiroyuki). There is also more to be found in that direction if u know some stuff. I don’t think its intentional but it’s for me to think back on stuff i enjoyed. Through I thought of it as a drama and it feels until the last episode that way it ends somehow still happy what disappointed me a bit as at least one of them could had have a drama end (one of them as one of the stories). The one with Chihiro was perfect to have a dramatic ending, but well… considering the anime as whole i say it’s ok. The end is always something where I’m pretty picky so lets put that aside.

Trailer (Fall ‘07 Preview with eng subs):

Opening:

This song is called “euphoric field” and is from Tenmon feat. ELISA. At the end of Episode 12 u have this song but as japanese version. I left out the ending as there are multiple (5 different songs).

-Deathy

And finally i managed to finish off el cazador. Third installment in Bee Train’s “girls with guns” trilogy El Cazador is the story of a girl named Ellis, who finds herself on the run from the so called Hunters of the underground society due to being a suspect of a murder. She meets up with a bounty hunter named Nadie who offers her help and guidance to pursue the truth of her past. But now she’s also being targeted by the Hunters and so their quest for the truth begins. [description taken from AniDB as usual] If u watched Noir and Madlax u also should enjoy this one. It have more relation to Madlax then to Noir as we here have a girl with some special “abilities”, not like in Noir the perfect assasin. But on the other hand this one is more clear then Madlax at the end and u can follow the story easier. Also the music made me often think of Noir as there are some tunes that i suspect beeing identical. Also nice is this time the place where the story take part. Its not future, city or similar, no, this time it take place in a desert environment. As it plays in the US (considering the later data) i would say somewhere in Texas probably. This is a quite unique environment compared to the usual ones. It gives the anime a fresh and not so worn-off taste in case of the scenario. Our characters also get linked together more and more while the story goes on and the end is somehow more relaxed then i had imagined but that should not mean its bad. It was ok and the last episode also made me laugh a bit as they reuse some characters in it u might have forgotten over time while watching this anime. Also it was again intresting to see how much a character can tell one without using words. I can only say Lirio fascinated me. I was a good character design, i liked it. As I said the people who enjoyed Noir and/or Madlax should have fun on this one, and who dont know any of these at all could use this and try if he can have fun with such stuff.

Trailer 1:

Trailer 2:

I didnt added the op/ed this time as it not show much of the anime it self but rather shows different stuff. Different as it is like it tells a own story or show something thats meant in a brought forward meaning (i hope it gets through what i try to say). At least the ending do.

Deathy

Its the first series i spend the time i found in my week off from work on. It is based on a light novel series by Sanda Makoto, illustrated by pako. Itsuki Iba is the cowardly president of a ‘for hire’ magic company called Astral. Always in need of money, Itsuki’s company rents out magicians to perform misc jobs. His company features many magic schools such as Solomon (Demon Magic), Shinto (Prayer Magic), Onmyodou (Spirit Magic) and Celtic (Ritual/Paper Magic). Not the only company out there looking for work, but Itsuki’s company has an ‘ace’ in the hole which happens to be Itsuki himself. If things become more than they can handle, Itsuki will remove his eye patch. As a side note, most of these people are grade schoolers and 2 of them happen to be classmates of Itsuki’s. [description stolen as always from AniDB.] It was a good anime but with a little weak ending (sadly). What i quite liked was that we here got not only the typical japanese “magic” but also western stuff like Honamis Celtic Magic, which also is a type of magic i dont remember seeing before in any anime i watched. Also new to me was Adelicias Solomon magic, which is basically a type of demon magic but still different to the usual type. Through she need to have a special item i rather woudn’t it call demon magic but summoning magic as she calls her servants as she needs them. Also u get a little love triangle in this series but i guess that is used to add a little spice and comedy to this series. I hope they give us a 2nd Season as i still have some stuff that i want to know, most of it small things but well. The end was a bit weak to me as it was rather short and not well prepared enough as the story reveals. It feels a bit too sudden.

Trailer (net version):

Opening:

Ending:

I choose the net trailer, as it is longer and so shows more of the actual show.

-Death

Based on a manga by Fujishiro Takeshi, serialised in Monthly Shounen Gangan. Ikuto Touhohin just had a fight with his old man, one that led him to make a rash decision to run away from home. He boards a ship, deciding to take a vacation, but the ship is suddenly hit by a huge storm – one that sends Ikuto overboard! When he regains consciousness, he realizes he is still alive… on some island. An isolated island. An isolated island with nothing but girls. Beautiful girls. Stranded on an island with only girls, no electricity, gas, radio, television… like he was back in the stone age. [stolen as always from AniDB] Its a quite funny anime out of the harem/comdey/romance genere. I had at first my probs, since it felt like some overdone harem anime that get unnatural (like Ichigo 100%, it was so… artifical and dumb… *shiver*) but after some episodes this feeling was gone and the fun really begun. Also the setting through it feels old is unusual and i must admit i never had such a scenario for a harem/comedy/romance before. Still i cant get a rid of the feeling i had something like this already… guess i don’t remember that anime anymore. I had the most fun on Suzu and Machi-nee. Suzu for just beeing cute and lovly, and Machi-nee for her evil behavior. She is quite wonderful in her ways of beeing evil^^… poor Ayane (her lil’ sister). But there are more characters that have their own intresting points like for example Chikage and her obession with research everything. The chars also grow slowly, not in a physical way but in a mental way and also as lovers (through they never actually said they loved each other the for the whole series^^). Also funny is the fact that they can communicate with the animals, and many of them have their friends. Like Suzu and the pig Tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is a quite funny one and looks like a ball with a face and 2 ears. But that not all, but for the more u have to figure out for yourself. Also what i digged up was the sweet stuff that Suzu goes nuts for as i was intrested in what this is. Its named Mame Daifuku and consist of a soft, chewy dough surrounding which covers small sphere of sweet red bean paste. I must say i never got the chance to taste it myself so i took the discription from the blog where i also found the recipe how u can make it yourself. You can find the recipe along some pictures in akatsuki talks rot’s blog entry “mame daifuku”. Also i found later a second guide how to make Mame Daifuku at the “To Short Term Memories” blog, which is a bit more detailed and also includes pictures of the process. It sounds quite yummy and make me understand why Suzu loves it so much through it looks a lil bit weird in reality. So all together we can say that Nagasarete Airantou is a funny and entertaining anime just i have to say that i dont like the final solution for the prob of his lil sister in the end, but i wont say more ’bout this as it would spoil too much. See for yourself, i just say they could have solved it better.

Trailer (raw):

Opening:

And as for the Mame Daifuku, here u can see some pictures i took also from akatsuki’s blog:

Mame Daifuku on a plate

Mame Daifuku on a plate cutted open so u can see the inside

So, thats all, i hope u enjoyed it.

Your Death-chan

When i was on the hunt for new pictures to add to this blog i came across this one:

I didnt thought too much about it, added it to the blog along with some other pics but still it bugged me somehow… So when i was bored i begun to ask a bit around and got a hold of more pictures:

When i saw the last picture it even raised more my interest in it as it looked it is some book. So i begun to ask around and got some response in the internal channels of my groups. This books are english instruction books for japanese people with a manga style. But their image of words one should learn to speak proper english with other peoples seems to be rather weird. Sure this ones target at young people but still… especially these should learn it proper. On the other hand this stuff gave me lots of laughs. The figure we see (the red haired one) is Maritan. There are also 3 other girls, and its all styled to imitate some military akademy or similar. Maritan is the sea drill instructor (what ever this have relation to learn a language). As for the other i found this picture here but still figured out their names:

It seems that Maritan is even so popular that its not limited to english instruction books anymore but also get used to advertise other products:

Well, i hope they have also some real english instruction books there… anyway, i will definitly get me Maritan books and will have some fun with them. If u also have deeper interest in them:

Maritan to hanasou
ISBN 978-4-89425-534-0
2100 JPY

Das ist Maritan
ISBN 4-89425-440-9
1524 JPY

and  there is more to be found in the internet or on yesasia.com if you prefer originals like me.  Enjoy the fun,

-Death